They said it was a dying tree that it must be cut down, but I refused to believe it.

That tree in our front yard suffered a lightening strike. It lost one of it's major limbs that was too high for me to reach to cut it off.

The tree had been planted by my wife's first born son. At age 15, he planted two sycamore trees in the front yard for his mother. They still stand to this day, after her son's death from complications of type 2 diabetes at around the age of 57.

Today, both trees stand as a testament to a son's love for his mother who planted these trees as a show of his love and respect for her. I married this woman. She still remembers the day that these trees were planted, when her first born son was just a young boy.

In spite of the fact that I was told the tree would not survive, it has managed to remain standing for 5 years afterwards. It still stands to this day.

The limb that died was too high to reach and it continued to hang over the road in front of the house and could have fallen onto a car or truck passing under it perhaps, during a heavy thunderstorm. That storm did come, just about a year ago. The winds were at about 60 mph and the lightening and thunder roared through the area and that limb fell to the streets and was broken up into many smaller pieces. I spent all day from that early morning when I first discovered it on the front lawn and pulled it off the road and began to cut it into many smaller parts until along came a man who worked for the city who just happened to be driving around looking for people to help as our tree was not the only one damaged from the heavy storm.

Now, one year later, that tree has many branches still and in spite of the fact they said it should not still live it still grows many new leaves and provides good shade for the yard. I refused to cut it down because I had some kind of blind faith that, if left alone to the nature that it was a part of, would somehow survive and so far it has.

There is a hollow inside that tree, up high, where a squirrel once made it's nest. I don't know if that will effect the tree's life or not but I can't help but believe that the sycamore will still be standing after my death.

One person's favorite tree is another person's obstruction. That said, the tree was of value to one person not the other, but at least, for many years it stood there without being destroyed by an indifferent person who did not value it. God values things that we destroy every day.